


In Clover

by bugmadoo



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Canon Divergence, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, Pillow Talk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-16
Updated: 2015-12-16
Packaged: 2018-05-06 23:48:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5435369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bugmadoo/pseuds/bugmadoo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some Friday night domesticity and some pillow talk</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Clover

**Author's Note:**

  * For [andchaos (summerblizzards)](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=andchaos+%28summerblizzards%29).



> Happy Birthday, Alex!! Here's some fluff for you :)
> 
> Song title from [In Clover by Joywave](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVIg2fuW8mk)

When he reached the top step of the stairs leading up to the third floor of their building, Mickey stopped and sighed. He crossed the short distance of the hallway that was separating him from their apartment and leaned his forehead against the cool wood. He closed his eyes and took another deep breath, feeling the day’s heavy weight in every cell of his body, but sure enough, the comfort of being home released some of the tension in his shoulders already even if he had yet to enter. Taking another deep breath, he fumbled for the keys in the pocket of his jacket. It took him longer than he would ever admit, but his mind was slow and his fingers tired.

To say that Mickey had had a long day would have been an understatement. His boss at the garage had forced him to finish fixing one of the cars before the day was over since the customer was friends with him, sleeping with him or owed him a favor. It was always one of those three things. While Mickey wasn’t exactly sure which one it was exactly, what he knew for sure was that he had to work overtime to make the car run smoothly again. It had taken him longer than expected and now it was almost late enough that he could go straight to bed without being accused of being a grandpa or a toddler.

He unlocked the door and his eyes immediately found Ian sitting at their dining table as Mickey dumped his backpack next to the door.

“Hey,” Mickey said, happy to find Ian waiting for him.

“Hey,” Ian huffed and stood up to greet Mickey.

Mickey placed his hands at the sides of Ian’s face and pulled him into a long kiss, sighing when their lips connected. There really wasn’t anything more comforting than Ian’s prescience.

“You’re late,” Ian mumbled, their foreheads touching, his tone neutral.

“You didn’t get my text? Said I’d be late.”

“Yeah, I just didn’t think you’d be this late.”

“Sorry. Had to finish this one thing before the weekend.”

“It’s alright, just missed you,” Ian said, smiling this time, and Mickey bumped their noses together with a smile himself.

Their lips touched again and it was hard to break apart, hands roaming and tongues exploring. While they were standing in the middle of their living room, Mickey felt the familiar bubble built where only Ian and him were ever allowed to exist in, warm and bright and undisturbed. Soft warmth started to spread all over his body like the early spring sun warming his skin and Mickey hummed, tangling his right hand in the hair at the back of Ian’s head, pulling him in. It surprised Mickey every now and again how much exactly he could miss Ian even if they were apart for just a handful of hours – not bad enough that he would admit to it but bad enough to need close contact when they were together again.

Ian licked along Mickey’s bottom lip while wrapping his arm around Mickey’s waist, pulling him firmer against his body. Mickey hummed and parted his lips to let Ian in. With Ian’s taste on his tongue and his strong arm around his waist, Mickey could barely think of anything else than the comfort all around him and the flutter of his stomach. Their kiss started slower than Mickey would have thought it would and Ian seemed to be able to read the urgency behind Mickey’s tongue because soon they were gripping and pulling and demanding and giving.

Their lips broke away from each other eventually to come up for air, cheeks flushed and chests rising and falling quickly.

“Shit,” Ian laughed and leaned his forehead against Mickey’s shoulder, “how are you so good at distracting me?”

Mickey chuckled in response and brushed one hand over the back of Ian’s head, inhaling his scent deeply and as discretely as possible. Ian lifted his head after a moment, looking at Mickey fondly before giving him another short kiss and walked into the kitchen.

“You hungry? Yev and I had pizza earlier and we left some for you.”

“Pizza?” Mickey asked while sitting down at the table, “how much of a mess did he make?”

“Not as bad as last time but still enough for a bath afterwards,” Ian laughed, putting the slices they’d saved for Mickey on a plate and into the microwave, “but he would have gotten one anyways. Svet said I should when she dropped him off.”

Mickey smiled fondly at the memory of the last time they had let his son eat pizza by himself and as entertaining the sight had been the cleanup afterwards had been a disaster. He was half glad that he hadn’t been there for the fallout this time but his other half flinched because he should have been there regardless.

“Yev sleepin’ already?” Mickey asked and took a swig of the beer standing on the table for him.

“Yeah. Took me forever to get him there though. I had to convince him you’d be here in the morning.”

Mickey’s heart sank and not for the first time that day he regretted not telling his boss to fuck off so he could go home instead – not that that would have been an option in the first place, but Mickey liked to pretend.

The microwave finally binged loudly and a minute later Ian kissed the side of Mickey’s head before placing a plate with hot, delicious smelling pizza in front of Mickey. Ian sat down opposite of Mickey, a glass of water in his hand, and watched while his boyfriend dug in.

“He givin’ you any trouble today?”

Ian smiled, looking at the table and his hands playing with a paper napkin. “Nothing bad. After Svetlana dropped him off we went to Fiona’s and he played with Liam and Gemma and Amy came over as well and then we came back here and Yev made me read this book to him that Svetlana got him.” Ian laughed at the memory. “She’s read it to him so often he knew it by heart and he can’t even fucking read yet. I turned the page and he took one look at the pictures and – “ Ian snipped his fingers, “could basically recite the whole thing.”

Mickey listened intently while Ian filled him in on what he and the five year old had been up to and he thought about how he had some things to make up for tomorrow. He was more than glad that it was Friday and Yevgeny would be spending the entire weekend with them, Mickey feeling strangely sentimental at not having been there when all the little things happened that Ian was animatedly retelling.

“- so Fiona and me went into the attic and in a corner we found an old box we completely forgot about with like wooden trains and rails that Lip and me used to play with when we were little and we got it down for them.”

“Wooden? They weren’t full of splinters?”

“Surprisingly not,” Ian said and smiled at Mickey.

“Wow,” Mickey said sarcastically and took a bite from his last slice of pizza, “your childhood was full of luxuries.”

Ian chuckled quietly and ran his fingers through his hair. “Yeah, it totally was.”

They were silent then, Mickey finishing his dinner and Ian being content with watching him eat and occasionally taking a sip of his water. It was nice to have dinner together and it had become somewhat of a routine the both of them fell into, and Mickey finally felt completely at ease. He still felt tired but the exhaustion didn’t seem to weigh him down as much as it did before.

After another minute of comfortable silence, Mickey was chewing on his last bite and watching Ian finish his glass of water. Mickey scratched at his eyebrow before grabbing the plate and then looking at Ian.

“I’m gonna go check on Yev,” he said, getting up from the table.

Ian smiled and nodded as Mickey walked into the kitchen and placed his dirty plate in the sink to be dealt with tomorrow. Mickey brushed over the top of Ian’s head in passing on his way out of the kitchen and to the second bedroom that belonged to Yevgeny. He faintly heard Ian swear when he turned the corner and Mickey had to hold back a laugh.

Mickey put his hand on the door handle but hesitated. While he wanted to check in on his son and bid him goodnight, he didn’t want to wake him up which was a very real possibility since Yev was a light sleeper just like Mickey himself. Throwing caution into the wind, Mickey turned the door knob slowly and quietly opened the door, the light from the hallway piercing through the darkness of the room. He entered the room and closed the door behind him, shutting out the intruding brightness again.

The night light in form of a yellow plastic sun was the only thing illuminating the room and Mickey paused for a minute so that his eyes could adjust. The black of the room turned into shades of blue after a moment and he carefully crossed the small room to Yevgeny’s bed.

Mickey first made sure that the blanket was covering the boy completely again before he crouched down by the head of the bed.

Yev was sprawled all over the small twin bed, each limb pointing in a different direction, half of the blanket not covering him anymore, hair sticking up on the pillow and his lips were parted. He was just about to stand back up and leave the room when Yevgeny opened his eyes.

“Dad?” he whispered, his eyes blinking open blearily. Mickey felt a pang of regret in his chest since his own eyelids felt heavier and heavier by the minute and here he was waking Yev up when Mickey himself wanted to be in his position.

“Yeah, bud?”

Instead of answering, Yev tapped his forehead with his index finger and Mickey smiled at the gesture. He obeyed Yev’s unvoiced command and leaned in to place a goodnight kiss on Yev’s forehead like he would every night he slept here.

“Good?” Mickey asked, the amusement and affection in his voice mirrored in his face.

Yev only nodded in response.

“Alright, go back to sleep, Yev. See you in the morning.”

“Night, dad.”

“Night, kid.”

Mickey stood up and left the room, not before taking another glance at Yev and closed the door behind him. Their bedroom was empty when Mickey entered it so he quickly undressed to his boxers and tank top before joining Ian in the bathroom at the end of the hallway.

Ian didn’t let Mickey get very far though. As soon as he’d entered the small bathroom, Ian pulled Mickey tight against his body, one hand on his waist and one around the back of Mickey’s neck. A smile spread on Mickey’s lips and Ian leaned their foreheads together. They stayed like this for a moment, Ian making them sway from side to side a little and Mickey didn’t have to open his eyes to know what kind of grin Ian was sporting right now. Mickey raised his hands to Ian’s head and pulled him down further, their lips pressing against each other and Ian sighed into the kiss. He parted his lips to welcome Mickey further inside and when their tongues touched, Ian tightened his grip around Mickey’s waist.

After only a few seconds Mickey pulled away, flinching slightly. Ian frowned affronted.

“What?”

“D’you use a different toothpaste or somethin’?” Mickey asked, his expression still sour.

“Are you serious?”

“What?”

“You forget how you complained for like five whole minutes yesterday about how I used the last of it?” Ian raised his eyebrows expectantly as if he was waiting for his words to bring back Mickey’s memory.

“Well, we have to get another one, this one makes me feel like I’m fuckin’ kissin’ a peppermint plant.”

“Not my fault –“

“Bullshit.”

“ –aybe you should just think of kissing me before I brush my teeth.”

“So what would you call what we were doin’ in the middle of the living room when I came home then?”

Ian looked suspiciously smug in the second before he answered. “I’d call that saying hi to each other.”

Mickey closed his eyes and shook his head. Being tired really lowered his tolerance of Ian’s specific brand of bullshit.

“Oh, fuck off.” Being tired didn’t raise the quality of his own comebacks really high either. He reached for his own tooth brush next to the sink.

“I should probably brush my teeth _after_ I kiss you anyway,” Ian said and out of the corner of his eye Mickey saw the smirk on his face. Mickey sighed before replying.

“And why is that, Doctor Gallagher?”

Ian leaned down slightly, his face almost too close to Mickey’s.

“Your kisses are so sweet, they give me cavities.”

Ian straightened back up and Mickey’s eyebrows rose high on his forehead while he crossed his arms in front of his chest. “You did not just say that.”

“I think you heard me, Mick.”

“You know you’re sleepin’ on the couch tonight, right?”

“No, I’m not,” Ian said, chuckling, and kissed Mickey’s shoulder on his way out of the bathroom.

“Motherfucker,” Mickey muttered under his breath without much malice and put an extra big amount of paste on his tooth brush to pay Ian back – only to regret that decision two seconds after starting to brush his teeth.

Mickey stomped back into their bedroom after he finished brushing his teeth as quickly as possible. Ian was pulling back the comforter so he could get in the bed, when Mickey pulled him by the shoulder, turning him around, and kissed Ian messily. At first, Ian melted against Mickey, his arms winding around him, and Mickey almost forgot what his purpose had been when he had entered the room.

As if their kiss was a synchronized dance, both of them parted their lips, tongues touching, breaths mingling, hands gripping.

After only a few moments Ian pulled away, pulling the same face Mickey had earlier and brushing the back of his hand over his lips.

“Okay, yeah, I see what you meant. Tastes like a dive into peppermint pool,” Ian admitted.

“Told ya,” Mickey replied, walking back towards the bedroom door, not closing it completely, but leaving it slightly ajar in case Yevgeny would need them that night.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Ian said getting into bed while watching Mickey do the same, “Fiona invited us over for dinner tomorrow night.”

Mickey frowned. “Saturday night Gallagher family dinner?”

“Yep.”

“Wasn’t the last one like a week ago?”

“Try two months ago, Mick.”

“Huh,” Mickey huffed, punching his pillow into the shape he liked, Ian lying on his side and watching him.

“You gonna be there?” Ian asked as Mickey tested the pillow, finally lying down.

“Why are you askin’, you know I will be.”

“Good, Kev and Vee and the kids will be there too so Yev will be preoccupied.”

“Small blessings,” Mickey replied, one corner of his mouth rising to half a smile.

Ian smiled back at Mickey, a fond look in his eyes, studying the shadows the lamp on the nightstand cast on Mickey’s face. He was second away from raising his hand to brush his fingers over the skin of Mickey’s, when Mickey pushed his torso up and bunched up his pillow and repositioned it closer to Ian’s before lying back down and closing his eyes.

“How the fuck you do have the patience to do this every night?” Ian asked, his amusement evident in his voice.

“What?”

“You know … whatever it is you doin’ with your pillow. You always end up sleeping on mine anyway.”

“You complainin’?”

“Of course not, but no matter how tired you are you still find it in you to punch your pillow every night. If anything, I admire your dedication, Mick.” Ian chuckled.

Mickey grinned brightly for a moment before catching Ian off guard and flipping Ian on his back. He tried to climb on top of Ian quickly and while Ian's meds may delay Ian’s reaction time a little, he was still one of the fastest fuckers Mickey had ever met. Ian regained himself in a matter of seconds and Mickey was already struggling to stay on top of Ian, clamping his legs around Ian's hips. Mickey tried to pin Ian’s arms on the mattress, gripping Ian’s forearms tightly and using his weight as leverage to push down, but today’s long hours were asking for their toll and his muscles quickly grew tired. Mickey could practically see the moment of realization in Ian’s eyes that he was winning and before he knew it, Mickey was pressed against the mattress, his boyfriend pressing him down, their faces mere inches apart from each other.

They were both smiling brightly, joyful laughs on their lips, and Mickey drank the feeling in. Ian’s stare was so tender and loving that Mickey’s exhale got stuck in his throat. His heart felt like it was expanding in his chest and swallowing him whole. It made Mickey need Ian closer and closer so he raised his hand and pulled Ian’s head down, the offending distance between their lips disappearing. The kiss was sweet, more reassurance than a starting point for something else, their lips moving slowly against each other, the intention behind it more important than the kiss itself.

Ian broke the kiss and looked into Mickey’s eyes while calming his breathing. Mickey smiled warmly, a private and small smile that only two people ever got to see. The sight made Ian want to connect their lips again and so he did, the kiss short and sweet, Mickey running his hand from the back of Ian’s head down his shoulder to squeeze it reassuringly. He rolled off of Mickey and lied down next to him.

“Fiona’s at 7 tomorrow?” Mickey asked after a moment of silence, picking up their conversation from earlier.

“Like always, yeah.”

“Just makin’ sure, man,” Mickey replied, unable to fight the defensiveness subtly creeping in on him at Ian’s words – not subtle enough for Ian not to catch it, however.

Ian rolled to his side to face Mickey and looked at him, eyebrows drawn together slightly. He scooted his body closer to Mickey, pulling the comforter with him, and lifted his head to lie on Mickey’s pillow, their noses only a few inches shy of touching. Ian produced his arm from under the covers and placed it on the side of Mickey’s head, his thumb running soothingly along Mickey’s cheekbone.

“Thanks,” Ian said, his voice softer and lower than before.

“What for?” Mickey said, closing his eyes. The comfort of Ian’s ministration seeping into Mickey’s tired muscles.

“For coming tomorrow.”

Mickey didn’t immediately reply but dragged his face even closer to Ian’s, bumping bumping their noses together tenderly. “You know I’ll be wherever you are.”

Ian tilted his chin to connect their lips, the whirlwind of emotions inside of him needing the contact. “I love you,” he murmured.

Mickey opened his eyes only to see Ian closing his. He was almost glad their timing wasn’t the best because he liked looking at Ian without any kind of audience, not even Ian himself. Ian’s freckles were in the process of becoming a little darker now that the sun had started coming through more often and some strands of red hair were hanging into Ian’s face. Mickey lifted his hand to brush them back into place and was just about the pull away when he thought better of it, placed a kiss on Ian’s forehead and left his hand on the side of Ian’s head. Mickey saw how Ian smiled at the gesture and Mickey was happy to just watch the contentment on Ian’s face.

The smile faded slowly from Ian’s lips after a moment or two, the happy expression replaced by a more pensive one – the soft lines on his face a little harder and his eyebrows drawn together.

“Watcha thinkin’ about?” Mickey asked when the look didn’t fade after a minute.

“Nothing just …,” he shook his head and smiled. After a beat he continued, “it’s really cute that Yev and Amy and Gemma are all growing up together. Got me thinkin’ about my childhood, I guess. It must be nice to have something like that.”

“You sound like you didn’t have an army of siblings growin’ up with you.”

“I guess, but Yev is growing up with friends the same age as him.” Ian entwined their fingers, staring at how their hands fit together. “They’re all going to become best friends and roam the neighborhood together and frustrate us and Kev and Vee with how much trouble they’re going to get in.“

“You tellin’ me you didn’t roam with neighborhood and get into trouble with Lip?”

Ian smiled, still looking at their hands. “I did, but he’s family, you know? We were around each other all the fuckin' time. It’s all I ever knew, he was always there. He was almost like a dad to me sometimes, you know, when Fiona was busy with work or taking care of Debbie and Carl. And I guess it was more like me following him around all the time because he was fucking superman when I was young, you know what I mean?”

Mickey hesitated before answering. “Not really.”

“You didn’t roam the neighborhood with your brothers? Or Mandy?”

“Only if we were out to beat someone up.” Ian’s grip on Mickey tightened. “Never had a best friend or nothin’,” Mickey added quietly and rubbed his thumb over his eyebrow while never breaking the hold on Ian’s hand.

Ian had learned in bits and pieces over the years of being with Mickey just how different their childhoods had been even though they didn’t grow up very far away from each other. Still, Ian’s heart ached from time to time for the man lying next to him and the things life had thrown at him.

“You know, Mick,” Ian started, squeezing Mickey’s fingers between his.

“What?”

“You’re my best friend.”

Ian looked Mickey straight in the eyes, trying to convey the truth behind that statement.

Mickey smiled, some sort of warm wave rolling down along his nerves and bones, and Ian was happy to see the mixture of amusement and affection on his face. “That true, huh?”

“Yeah. You’re my boyfriend _and_ my best friend. Two for one. Got myself a pretty sweet deal.”

Mickey shook his head at Ian’s choice of words, but he still gave him a peck on the lips, before leaning their foreheads against each other. A yawn was forcing its way out of Mickey however and he pulled away, Ian watching and trying to keep himself from laughing.

“You look tired.”

“Yeah.”

“Close your eyes,” Ian whispered, brushing his thumb over Mickey’s eyebrow, “go to sleep.”

“Like lookin’ at you,” Mickey mumbled, but despite his words his eyelids were drooping lower and lower while he talked. It was obvious that he was losing the battle against sleep and Ian couldn’t do anything about neither the affectionate smile on his face nor the fluttering heart in his chest.

“Dork,” Ian smiled, and kissed Mickey on the forehead. “Sleep, babe, I’ll make breakfast in the morning.”

“Dork yourself,” Mickey muttered into the pillow, eyes finally closed with no apparent intention to open them again any time soon. It took less than a minute until Ian could pinpoint that Mickey fell asleep by his breathing pattern and the way the muscles in his back and face relaxed.

Ian couldn’t stop himself from grinning when he turned slightly to turn off the lamp on his nightstand. He lay back down as close to Mickey as possible without moving him from the position he was in. Sighing, Ian sank deeper into the sheets, knowing sleep would come soon.

**Author's Note:**

> find me @ [caputdraconis](caputdraconis.tumblr.com) and happy birthday again alex!! thanks for everything :)


End file.
